This Kind of War – The Classic Korean War History

This Kind of War – The Classic Korean War History by T.R. Fehrenbach

I have found that books detailing the Korean War are the hardest to find amongst the major American wars. There seems to have been many books written about certain elements of the war, but not many that give a straight-forward account from beginning to end. I’m a bit surprised that this one remained off my radar for so long. Especially since it was written back in 1962. Maybe I couldn’t find it because it wasn’t available in e-format? Regardless, I loved this book yet felt a bit gypped that it took me so long to discover it. I wish I would have read this book years ago.

This book does give a detailed account of the conflict, but also much more. We begin by learning a bit about the history of the poor maligned country – fought and mauled over for centuries due to its unfortunate geography (sandwiched between bullies Russia, China, and Japan). We then learn about the country’s subjugation under Japan during World War II. This causes the people of this little country to become hard and uncaring.

Well, without going into too much politics – The Communist North invades the Free South in 1950. Harry Truman and the newly formed United Nations feel they must make a stand. The U.S. gets involved and suffers brutal losses as the enemy pushes the allies literally into the corner of the country. Enter Douglas MacArthur and the famed invasion at Inchon. Not only does North Korea retreat back past the 38^th parallel, but MacArthur chases them all the way back to the Yalu River (the border of Korea and China).  Calmer heads suggest such a move isn’t necessary and could have serious repercussions if Communist China enters the war on the side of their North Korean allies.  MacArthur is convinced China won’t enter the war. He’s wrong. So the allies are driven back to the 38^th parallel, essentially each side is now back to where they were when the war started. All of this happens within the first six months of the war.  The sides negotiate and talk peace, but no ceasefire happens until 2 ½ years later. In the meantime, many more are wounded and killed.

As far as the fighting and the battles go, this book is very detailed. It might be too detailed for some tastes. It’s a bit cumbersome to have to digest so many names, locations, military units, etc. but each chapter gives us the overall feel of how the tide is turning at the particular time. The detail is quite graphic. We must remember that it wasn’t until the next American war (Vietnam) where television brought the conflict into our living rooms. People on the outside still couldn’t quite fathom how bad ‘hell’ really was when one said ‘War is Hell’. Fehrenbach does his due diligence describing the horrid details in very explicit fashion.   I think that if I had a child or loved one that died during this war, I wouldn’t want to read this book. It makes your heart break to read about the torments and torture that the soldiers suffered through.

There are a few other themes that the author devotes a lot of page space to, yet he curiously glosses over events that seemed to get the most press and attention. There’s very little here on the Inchon planning and landing, and only a small amount detailing the conflict between MacArthur and Truman (which eventually got MacArthur fired). 

One curious theme that is discussed in detail is that the author claims that the young American soldier simply wasn’t ready to fight in this particular conflict. The politicians made many budget cuts after the traumatic second world war, and the boys sent to Korea were simply out of shape and unprepared for the horrors. We read several times of soldiers mouthing off to their commanders in the thick of battle, throwing their weapons in the air, and running away.  In fact, the overall theme of the book seems to revolve around the fact that war must try to be avoided at all cost, yet if absolutely necessary, it must be fought with total commitment and total dedication. This is something most Americans (on and off the battlefield) simply didn’t have because they couldn’t really understand just what in the hell we were doing there in the first place.

He also spends a fair amount of time talking about the contrast between the POW camps on both sides of the conflict. Not surprisingly, the Americans are treated incredibly poorly and with contempt. The Americans, however, treated their prisoners with much more compassion. The argument was, we need to show these soldiers what life in a democracy is really like, and if the only place where we can do that is within the barbed wires of a prison camp, so it must be.  In fact, we see the North Korean prisoners being treated better than their captors.  Results end up being quite mixed. In fact, the POW issue was the main area of focus that kept the ceasefire from going into effect sooner. When the fighting ended, the U.S. wanted to give their captors the ‘choice’ of whether or not they wanted to go back to their communist country.  Not surprisingly, then enemy is appalled by such a suggestion. So the fighting goes on and on.

What I enjoyed most about the book is that the author convinces the reader that even though the war seemed a futile conflict, it did, in fact, set some very clear precedents about how the free world reacted towards a communist aggressor. The U.S., along with the United Nations, proved that they wouldn’t let communist countries run rampant over their democratic neighbors. A costly war all things considered, but he makes a convincing argument that the free world was probably a better place when the fighting eventually stopped.

On a negative note, there were no pictures within the pages of the book, nor were there any maps. Maps were sorely missed since there are so many places described when the battles are detailed. Fortunately, technology allows us to quickly pull one up via Google so we can see all the places that the author refers to in meticulous detail.

A great book on a sad, overlooked war.